Sustaining a growing population on our dynamic planet requires deep understanding of geological and geophysical processes within the Earth, and of how they interact with the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biota. The Geology and Geophysics trains you to address pressing questions concerning our home planet's evolution, its role as the source of raw materials needed by modern civilisation, and environmental issues. Key questions include:

How can we decode Earth’s rock record to reveal the evolution of Earth’s crust and mantle over billions of years?

How do we make natural resource exploration and extraction more sustainable and environmentally friendly?

What can the Earth’s history tell us to help us forecast the impacts of climate change?

Where can we safely construct power plants or store nuclear waste?

The programme includes four specialist options: Petrology and Economic Geology; Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology; Palaeontology and Global Change; and Solid Earth Geophysics.

Upon completion of the programme, you will have gained expertise in a number of scientific and professional skills, including, depending on your specialist option:

• Assessment of geological materials (minerals, rock types, bedrock, groundwater)
• Understanding the genesis and sustainable use of mineral commodities
• Sustainable use of the environment from the Earth Science perspective
• Palaeontology and modelling global change using the geological record
• The physical evolution of the Earth (plate tectonics, interplay of the mantle and crust)
• Independent and team-driven project research
• High-level scientific writing (M.Sc. thesis and related work)
• Presentation of scientific results to scientists, students, and the general public

Further information about the studies on the Master's programme website.